Larry’s List: Irish Atheist Edition

Ireland’s atheists are battling a blasphemy law while the year of gay China is moving forward. And you won’t believe what you’ve been eating. These stories and more on today’s list.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

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Ireland’s Minister of Justice is proposing to amend his new blasphemy law by providing, as a defense, that a person accused of blasphemy can “prove that a reasonable person would find genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific or academic value” in blasphemous matter.

The Joy of Dirt Grub, filth, grime, muck, gunk, slag, grit, grunge, smut, dross, dust, sludge, squalor. Insulted, hounded and despised, dirt these days has nowhere to hide.

Obama Double-Crossed Progressives on Health Care Are you feeling like a chump yet? If you’re a good progressive, and you wanted single-payer health care for all, or, second best, Medicare for All Who Want It, or third best, a robust public option, or fourth best, a paltry public option, now you’ve got nothing, nada, zippo.

Bernanke: Rewarding a Catastrophe The Senate Banking Committee overwhelmingly voted to approve Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke for another four-year term.

Fifteen Horrifying Reasons to Never Let Anyone You Love Near a McDonald’s One of AlterNet’s most popular articles of the year: Erectile dysfunction, the truth behind the “special sauce” and a burger from 1996. Keep reading if you dare.

Irish Atheists Challenge Blasphemy Law An atheist group in the Irish Republic has defied a new blasphemy law by publishing a series of anti-religious quotations on its website.

Yummy! Ammonia-Treated Pink Slime Now in Most U.S. Ground Beef You’re not going to believe what millions of Americans have been eating the last few years (Thanks Bush! Thanks meat industry lobbyists!).

Year of Gay China As the year 2009 comes to a close, it does so having been a monumental year for China’s LGBT community.